Rottnest Island

We spent two days on an island off the coast of Perth called Rottnest Island.  There are no cars on the island and it is the only place you can find Quokkas (small marsupials about the size of a raccoon).  These things come right up to you and Chad even had one jump on his lap while we were drinking a beer at the local pub. 

We spent most of the time during the days riding our bikes between the amazing beaches on the island.  The snorkelling was outstanding here as well, but alas we had no camera for that...

Perth

We are hanging out in Perth and trying to locate some work to top of the accounts again. We are staying with a friend we met in Africa! Last night we went to see her do her trapeze class and may try one ourselves next week!!...Otherwise we wanted to pass along a few messages for some big events over the next few weeks....
Vicky and Chris - Best of luck with the wedding next weekend! We wish we could be there to celebrate!
Moms - Happy Mother's day to Vicky and Gloria. Love you both very much!

West Coast Road Trip

After 4,400km of driving along the west coast and into the outback, we are back in Perth.  It was quite an amazing drive, such a long way through such a vast, red-dusted landscape.  We stopped at four National Parks - Nambung, Kalbarri, Cape Range and Karijini National Parks.  All were impressive for different reasons, but Karijini was by far the most impressive.  It is a series of massive gorges that we hiked through and swam in the swimming holes. We also stopped at a place called Monkey Mia where wild dolphins come to the beach to feed every morning!
We stayed at a place called Coral Bay for about 4 days.  Coral Bay is part of the Ningaloo Reef; a reef that is quite similar to the Great Barrier Reef, but much smaller.  The big draw here is that you can walk right out to the reef from the beach (unlike the Great Barrier Reef that is 25+ km from the shore).  This is where we swam with whalesharks, which was one of the most impressive things we have ever done. We saw an almost 5m whaleshark who we swam with a number of times. Chad also experienced his first ocean dive where he saw a leopard shark, turtles and a sea snake among other marine life.
We met so many amazing people on our trip. Many of whom were completing a similar loop or taking it a bit further up north. We camped the whole time in our little pop tent but were amazed at how intense the camping set-ups were during our trip. So many people erected tent cities and were fully set up with showers and fridges! All would have been very useful in such an incredibly harsh environment. It truly was "roughing it".
Driving back through the interior we went through a number of mining towns and even went on a mining tour which was very informative, but also very interesting since we were driving through one of the biggest iron-ore producing areas in the world.

Pinnacles Desert

Pinnacles Desert

West Coast lookout

Shell Beach

Natures Window - Kalbarri National Park

Enjoying the sun in Monkey Mia

Camp/Car combo

Circular Pool in Karijini National Park

Dolphin at Monkey Mia

Gorge hike in Karijini

Avoiding the water in Karijini

Karijini National Park

Ningaloo Reef

Ningaloo Reef



Whaleshark Swim




Whaleshark - That's us in the background!



Kangaroos and Surfing

We must really be in Australia because yesterday we saw kangaroos in the morning and went surfing in the afternoon!! We leave tomorrow until April 29th to drive up the northwest coast! It'll be an intense road trip with lots planned. We especially cannot wait to swim with the whalesharks!
Post pics when we get back!

A very special Happy Birthday to Ashley's mom on the 26th!!!:) Wish we could be there for the big celebration!

AUSTRALIA!!!

We have arrived in Australia and are in Perth on the west coast! We are spending the next few days with friends of the family before heading up the west coast for 16 days. We are just about to head to the beach!
We will post more travel pics when we have them!!!

Looking back on New Zealand....

Here are a few pics we have not yet posted from New Zealand. As we are about to leave to head to Australia thought we would show off more of this amazing country!

Chad was choosen as "chief" for the day at a Maori cultural tour

The clouds moved in as Ashley hiked down to get this pic...

Nugget Point

Dunedin train station

Sheep everywhere!!!

Wine selection....tough work!

T - 10 Days

In 10 days we will be in Australia. We have sold our van. Arranged to stay with family friends and visit a friend from Africa while in Perth. Have rented a car for 16 days to drive up the northwest coast. Booked swimming with whale sharks while in Coral Bay and planned much more along the journey. Before we leave we are really excited to stay with the family we were with during the earthquake in Christchurch and wrap up our time in Timaru. 
We look forward to posting pics and having many more travel stories over the next month or so.......
In the meantime, we have highlighted a map showing the approximate route we took around the two islands. We really did cover a lot of ground in the 5 months we were here. New Zealand truly is incredible and definitely worth a trip!

Three weeks until Australia!!!

The title says it all...getting very excited!!!!!!

No LuLu Love!

Something the ladies can appreciate....when packing for this trip I carefully selected lulus in various lengths, one pair of shorts, one pair of capris and one pair of pants, to make up a good portion of my wardrode.  However, I have since realized that lulus truly are a Canadian obsession. People just have no idea what they are missing out on!!!  For example, since being here I have been asked why there is a funny up side down horseshoe on my shorts and I have even been told that I forgot to take the sticker off my pants...that being the lulu emblem on my pant legs.....I guess I am not as stylish as I thought!:)

Australia booked!

Flights to Australia booked! We fly out of New Zealand and into Perth on April 9th!!

What's new

We have been in Timaru for just over a week now. Its been a bit of a roller coaster ride of emotions since the earthquake but we are settling in.

Chad has a job at a bar in town and is volunteering during the day at the Salvation Army helping to sort donations and what not. I am getting used to working in Msk even though its definitely all very new and its hard to go back to placements almost 2 years ago to remember what to do! It's very interesting treating people in a different country....they describe having slight pain as having a "niggle" and usually say things are "average as" and say they are "getting sorted". I spend as much time trying to figure out what they are saying not just what injury they have.

We are pretty excited for this weekend because the family from Christchurch we stayed with are sending their kids here for the weekend while they go to a concert in Queenstown. Conrad, 14 and Cathryn, 13 will be here and we are planning on showing them around exciting Timaru.

Otherwise we are trying to sell our sweet campervan, and are going to book our tickets next week to Perth for around April 10th woohoo!!! Only 5 weeks until Western Australia!!!!

Timaru

We want to really thank everyone for the concern over the past few days. We were very lucky to have not been hurt in the earthquake and to have had such an amazing family help us out afterwards.
Yesterday, we left Christchurch and accepted a physiotherapy position for 6 weeks in Timaru, 2 hours south of Christchurch. After this position we will head to Australia and start our travels over there.
Thanks again for all the support.

Safe after Christchurch Earthquake

Chad and I are in Christchurch and would like everyone to know that although today was a very scary experience we are both safe and well. We are fortunate to be staying with a local family and will remain here until we can figure out our next move.

Christchurch

We have arrived in Christchurch and are getting ready for Ashley to start work in the next few days. The last few weeks of our 8-week south island travels were incredible complete with a wine tour, an epic hike, swimming with almost 500 dolphins in the wild and hanging out at an ocean front cottage. 

Rees Dart  - Rees Valley

Glacier pool on Rees Dart

Overlooking Matukituki Valley

Dart Glacier...it was huge!

Mt. Cook - New Zealand's highest peak

Testing out the wine in Malborough Region.....60 wineries within 10km!

Dusky dolphins in Kaikoura

View from cottage on the ocean

38km...No problem....

Due to unexpected bad weather we ended up hiking 38km yesturday to avoid heavy rainfalls and prevent getting stranded on our latest hike....it was intense but now that's it's over and we are back in Queenstown recovering before heading to Mount Cook. I (Ashley) start work in Christchurch on the 23rd for 3-4 weeks and great news....its a neuro job!!!! Woohoo!!

Crazy and Insane!!!

It's official......Chad did the 134m Nevis bungy jump and I did the Nevis Arc, the world's biggest swing with a 70m freefall and 300m arc.

New Zealand continues to be crazy and insane!!!!!

Jumping off the edge!!!



Hanging out waiting for the drop!